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RESOLUTION No

RESOLUTION No.2/1998/NQ-CP OF JANUARY 26, 1998 OF THE GOVERNMENT'S JANUARY 1998 REGULAR MEETING

On January 23 and 24, 1998 the Government held its January 1998 regular meeting to discuss and make resolutions on the following issues:

I. POLICIES AND MEASURES TO PROMOTE EXPORT:

The Government has considered the report presented by Minister of Trade Truong Dinh Tuyen on "the policies and measures to promote export" and decided a number of specific measures to promote export and create favorable conditions therefor.

1. To assign the Ministry of Trade to gather comments made at this meeting, finalize plans to be submitted to the Prime Minister for signing and promulgation by February 1998, including a list of a number of export goods which, when being exported, require export permits; the volume of goods items on such list must be limited while other commodities outside the list shall be freely exported through simple procedures under the business registration of enterprises.

2. To assign the Ministry of Finance to propose to the Government the amendments to the relevant documents for :

- The refund of turnover tax to enterprises which produce raw and auxiliary materials as well as semi-finished products and sell them to other units for the production of export goods;

- The non-collection of extra profit tax from production units which export more than 50% of their products or have their export turnover accounting for more than 50% of their total revenues.

- The application of the lowest rate in the export tax bracket to a number of goods items that need to be encouraged for export such as rice, aquatic products, rubber, coal...

The extension (up to one year) of import tax payment deadlines for supplies and materials imported in service of the production of export goods should be spelled out in the Bill on the Amendments and Supplements to a Number of Articles of the Law on Export Tax and Import Tax.

3. To assign the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Trade, the State Bank and the General Department of Customs to apply measures to simplify and publicize the procedures for handling relevant matters, thus creating the most favorable conditions for export and import activities.

The tasks mentioned in Points 2 and 3 above must be completed in the first quarter of 1998.

4. To assign the Ministry of Planning and Investment to coordinate with the Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Justice and the concerned agencies in devising then submitting to the Prime Minister for approval the amendments and supplements to the regulations on the following matters:

a/ Encouraging foreign and domestic investors to invest in the processing of agricultural products, aquatic products and planted-forest products for export. Encouraging and giving more incentives to establishments that manufacture export goods largely from materials available in the country, create more jobs and invest in technological renewal to manufacture high-quality export products.

b/ Adopting the most preferential investment policies for the production of export goods; diversifying the forms of guaranty and expanding the scope of subjects eligible for export credit guaranty from the National Investment Support Fund.

c/ Devising necessary mechanisms and creating favorable conditions for Vietnamese enterprises to set up their production and business establishments or overseas sale networks.

5. To assign the State Bank to coordinate with the Ministry of Trade and the concerned agencies in studying and drawing up a plan to set up an export credit fund to provide concessionary credits and export credit guaranty for Vietnamese enterprises (in the immediate future, part of the Price Stabilization Fund may be used to support the establishment of such fund); and to prepare necessary conditions for the establishment of the bank for export and import.

6. To assign the Ministry of Trade to coordinate with the Ministry of Finance and the concerned agencies in reorganizing the associations of producers or traders according to commodity groups, setting up funds for the development of these commodity groups, which shall promptly apply to rice and coffee; to consider the setting up of an export reward fund to reward enterprises with large export turnover, with new outlets and new products for export...; to specify the brokerage activities and brokerage commissions in commercial activities, in accordance with the law of Vietnam and the international customs and practices and as defined in Government's Resolution No.59-CP of June 5, 1997 in order to encourage organizations and individuals including foreign organizations and individuals, to seek new export markets for Vietnamese products.

The tasks mentioned in Points 4, 5 and 6 above must be completed in the second quarter of 1998.

II. THE LEGISLATIVE WORK

1. To adopt the Bill on the Amendments and Supplements to a Number of Articles of the Law on the State Budget, the Bill on the Amendments and Supplements to a Number of Articles of the Law on Export Tax and Import Tax and the Bill on Special Consumption Tax (amended) proposed by Minister of Finance Nguyen Sinh Hung with additional comments thereon made at this meeting. To assign the Ministry of Finance to coordinate with the Ministry of Justice, the Government Office and the concerned agencies in finalizing these Bills and report them to the Prime Minister for submission to the National Assembly Standing Committee.

2. To adopt the Bill on the Amendments and Supplements to a Number of Articles of the Law on the Promotion of Domestic Investment proposed by Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Xuan Gia with additional comments thereon made at this meeting. To assign the Ministry of Planning and Investment to coordinate with the Ministry of Justice, the Government Office and the concerned agencies in finalizing such Bills and report them to the Prime Minister for submission to the National Assembly Standing Committee.

In the course of finalizing the Bills mentioned in Points 1 and 2 above, the ministries should gather more opinions from enterprises to ensure their high feasibility.

3. With regard to the Bill on Complaints and Denunciations, the Government assigns the State Inspectorate to coordinate with the Ministry of Justice, the Government Office and the concerned agencies in finalizing it on the basis of the comments made by the Cabinet members, and report it to the Prime Minister for submission to the National Assembly Standing Committee.

III. OTHER ISSUES

The Government was also briefed by Planning and Investment Minister Tran Xuan Gia on the financial and currency crisis in Southeast Asian countries and adopted a number of additional policies and measures to diminish its impacts on the Vietnamese economy, to continue the production development, enhance the management over the capital construction investment, promote export, strictly control import, to thoroughly practice thrift in production, construction and daily life to spare resources for development investment and to maintain the financial and currency stability.

On behalf of the Government

For the Prime Minister

Deputy Prime Minister

NGUYEN TAN DUNG